For the record

With regard to your article, “Lang Digs Up Dirt against Tusten Community Garden” in The River Reporter issue of April 18-24, 2013 (page 5), I’d like to make a clarification for your readers.

Specifically, in the last paragraph of Ms. Braverman’s article regarding the vote in which, I believe, Mr. Lang should have abstained due to the Town of Tusten’s Ethics Laws. These laws were approved in 1996 and are online at www.tusten.org.

The law goes into detail about conflicts of interest. The vote in question was not about approving or disapproving the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Narrowsburg. Everyone on the town board, myself included, endorsed this event.

What the town board requested, through a resolution, was that any sponsor (Mr. Lang included) of any current or future event that occurs on a public Tusten roadway would be insured so that the town of Tusten and its citizens would be held harmless in the event a mishap were to occur.

This concept certainly is not novel. Towns such as Yulan and Jeffersonville, to name a few, require the sponsor of an event be insured for the time an event takes place on a public road to insure the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.

The Town of Tusten should require no less. We have, as town board members, taken an oath to protect the health, safety and welfare of our citizens. If any citizen has a question regarding this matter please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to answer any question.

Anthony Ritter
Narrowsburg, NY

[From the Town of Tusten minutes of March 6, 2013]

Supervisor Wingert made a motion to require insurance and traffic control for any event held on town property including town roads that requires the town to sanction the event. A certificate of insurance naming the Town of Tusten as additional insured for $2 million aggregate is also required. The motion was seconded by Councilman Meyer. Discussion followed.